Canada has announced the decriminalisation of hard drugs in a British Columbia pilot project aiming to tame an opioid crisis that has killed thousands – by treating addictions rather than jailing drug users for possession.
Responding to a request by British Columbia, federal Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett said an exemption to the law allowing possession of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and other hard drugs would kick in on 31 January, 2023 and last three years.
Adults in the Pacific coast province will not face arrest or charges for personal possession of up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs, nor will their drugs be seized by police.
Instead users will be provided with information on how to access medical help for addictions.
"For too many years, the ideological opposition to harm reduction has cost lives," Ms Bennett told a news conference in announcing the pilot.
"We are doing this to save lives, but also to give people using drugs their dignity and choices," she said, adding that it could become "a template for other jurisdictions across Canada."
Several cities, including Montreal and Toronto, have signaled a desire for similar legal exemptions.
A small leftist faction in Parliament, the New Democratic Party, is also to unveil Wednesday a proposed bill to decriminalise drug possession nationwide, but it is expected to be defeated.
The government's move makes British Columbia only the second jurisdiction in North America to decriminalize hard drugs after the US state of Oregon did so in November 2020.
Oregon's initiative has reportedly had mixed results as few people have taken up offers of addiction help, while spending on policing fell.
According to federal government data, 26,690 people have died of opioid overdoses across Canada from January 2016 to September 2021.
In British Columbia, an estimated six people die each day from opioid-related drug poisoning.
More than 2,200 lives were lost last year, and roughly 9,400 have died since the province's chief public health officer, Bonnie Henry, declared the situation a public health emergency in 2016.
